Athletic Ergogenic Aids‪.‬

The term "ergogenic" stems from the Greek roots--"Ergon" and "genes," meaning "work" and "born," respectively. Any means of enhancing energy production or utilization may be described as an ergogenic aid. (1) Ergogenic aids have classically been classified into five categories: mechanical, psychological, physiologic, pharmacologic, and nutritional. (2) The present use of the term "ergogenic aid" usually revolves around the physiologic, pharmacologic, and nutritional categories. While ergogenic aids have been linked to athletic "doping," the terms are not synonymous. Doping is a term used by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to describe the administration or use of a substance by a competing athlete with the sole intention of increasing in an artificial and unfair manner his or her performance in competition. (3) Not all ergogenic aids are banned by the IOC. A partial listing of substances banned by the United States Olympic Committee is found in Table 1.2,3 Table 2 provides a list of commonly used athletic ergogenic aids.